I believe a good definition of an academic is: "someone who loves learning and sharing what he/she learns". In this sense of the word, I have been an academic nearly all my life. As a faculty member at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, I feel very fortunate that I can make a living doing what I love. This blog is my attempt to explore and reflect on the deep connections between learning and freedom.

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Grades as a threat to excellence

A grade-oriented student body is an invitation for the administration and faculty to ask hard questions: What unexamined assumptions keep traditional grading in place? What forms of assessment might be less destructive? How can professors minimize the salience of grades in their classrooms, so long as grades must still be given? And: If the artificial inducement of grades disappeared, what sort of teaching strategies might elicit authentic interest in a course?

To engage in this sort of inquiry, to observe real classrooms, and to review the relevant research is to arrive at one overriding conclusion: The real threat to excellence isn't grade inflation at all; it's grades.

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About Me

I am a member of the faculty at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering where I design and analyze algorithms for next generation wireless networks and teach undergraduate and graduate courses on related topics.
I enjoy reading, writing, learning languages, nature, history, and photography.